The Affliction
by Quintinthegr8
Summary: A family is torn apart by a sudden zombie infection spreading through the galaxy. Now it's up to Johnny and co to look for a way to stop the virus in its tracks. Rated M for violence, swearing, and mentions of blood and gore.
1. The Beginning

Chapter 1: The beginning

It was a typical day on planet Raganon. The bordooshio Empire was militaristic as ever, the cities were flourishing, and the usual news broadcast about strange dissappearances was playing. Everything was normal, for a good bit. At about 0800 hours, Jeen and his ten year old son were watching saturday morning cartoons when the show was cut off by an emergency broadcast. Assuming it was a drill, as these were very frequent in his city, Jeen told his son to go get his shoes on, doing so himself. When he got his shoes on he heard a large concatany of gunfire directly outside his window. He ran over to the window, peeking over, and saw the most horrible sight imaginable. People were shambling around, possibly wounded as they were covered in blood, and they were being fired at by...soldiers?

"What the fuck?!" he exclaimed. Yelling for his son, he said "Johnny! Get your shoes on and get my rifle while you're at it...don't forget my ammo!"

Minutes later Johnny came lumbering out, clumsily balancing the rifle on his shoulders. His father took the rifle and immediately slammed a clip into the gun. He cocked it and said "Stay close...don't stop for anyone.". He peeked open his door to see if they were in the clear, not seeing anyone he continued through the door. As he got closer to the lobby of his apartment complex, he saw more and more blood, bodies, and Spode knows what else. As they got to the front door of the complex, they heard an un-Raganonly moan (AN Since...this isn't on Earth...ya know...yeah.) and Jeen swung around, his rifle aimed towards the gut of whatever was behind him. He was confronted with his wife, covered in blood and missing a chunk of her left arm. Taking a second to recognise her, he lowered his rifle. She started to shamble towards him, her right arm stretched out. He was about to go in to hug her when he heard someone yell "BREACH!" from the behind the lobby door. Shortly after, the door flew past him and bullets riddled what used to be his wife. The whole time, his son had been shaking in the corner, terrified of the thing that he used to call mom. After about four assault rifles' worth of bullets had hit her, she finally fell to the ground, not moving.

Jeen was about to turn around, ready to fight, when everything went black. He heard his son yelling only for him to be cut short with a loud thud. When he came to, he was in what seemed to be a tankette. He looked around to see the four soldiers who had killed his wife, too tired to try and attack them. One of them noticed he had woken up.

"Hey...was that your wife?"

"Yeah..."

"Hey...don't worry, she wasn't your wife anymore. She was one of _them_." He said that last word with a sort of malice, as if he was talking about a playground bully.

"Wha-? Who are...'they'?"  
"The...zombies...out there."

Upon hearing that word, he became extremely panicked. He began looking around for his son, only seeingthe soldiers.

"WHERE THE HELL IS MY SON!?" he yelled.

"He wouldn't come with us. we tried knocking him out, like we did you, but he woke up not even a minute later and ran out of the building. All we know is he went towards the base we're going to. There is going to be a fleet of evac ships entering low-orbit tomorrow. So, he'll be fine if he stays at the base."

About half an hour later they reached the Forward Operations Base that the soldiers were using. When the tankette's ramp dropped he was escorted to a repurposed warehouse where the other survivors were staying.

AN: So, how'd you guys like it? I made an attempt at this the other month but it came out as just a bunch of action descriptions...so I made another attempt and here it is. Chapter two coming soon. Until then, R&R.


	2. Evac

Chapter 2a: Evacuation

Jeen spent the rest of the day searching for his son. At about midnight he had learned that his son, along with a bunch of other survivors, had been transported to a better defended base. Jeen, finally beginning to relax, settled down on his cot and began to eat his daily ration. He fell asleep full of beans and dreamt about what might be happening to the rest of the planet.

Early the next morning he was awoken by gun fire. He jumped up and looked around. Everyone was lined up in front of a large Bordooshio dropship. This one wasn't the typical ship...it was stronger...more damaged. And there were about three more of them lined up next to it with one picking up more survivors and the other two dropping off soldiers who ran straight towards the onslaught of zombies. Upon getting on the ship he realised who these ships belonged to. They were the ships of those space captains he'd been seeing stories of on the news. They'd wiped out the Grox, saved countless planets from tyranical empires, and even sacrificed themselves to save the colonies of other empires.

When he finally got onto the ship he went through a medical screening. The soldiers getting pushed closer and closer to the evac ships. They checked him for bites, scratches, irregular symptoms, alergies, traces of medical drugs, that sort of thing. When he was finally done the soldiers began to pour back onto their ships. Only ten squads out of fifty were left. The last view he had of the city was that of smoke, fire, shambling corpses, and multiple Low-Orbit bombers destroying everything.

Chapter 2b: Johnny's PoV

When Johnny ran from the soldiers he ran straight down the street, ducking past his former neighbors and heading towards a large collection of lights. He heard the rumble of an engine as a military jeep came screeching around the next corner, someone gunning down zombies as it flew down the street. It stopped a few feet in front of him, the driver yelling "Get the hell in!" while waving his hand.

Johnny, with no other option, made a b-line for the vehicle. He jumped into the passenger seat the the vehicle roared back to life and sped straight down the street. He saw blurry, bloodied faces as they got closer to the lights. When they were about a mile from the lights, Johnny saw that they were flood lights lining a concrete wall. The jeep kept going at the same speed towards the gate, not slowing down one bit. Johnny looked behind them to find out why and saw a large group of _running_ zombies chasing them. As they got closer and closer to the front gate, it started to open and soldiers began to hop onto heavy machine guns that were lining the wall. They flew through the gate and Johnny turned around just in time to see the horde get gunned down by four different lines of .50 caliber bullets.

After about an hour of interrogation, Johnny was given a ration and sheparded onto a heavily armoured military transport along with dozens of other kids. As it left the base it was joined by eight guntrucks, which began forming a square around the trasnport and matching its speed.

Three hours later, they arrived at a much larger military base. This one had about two thousand soldiers patrolling, checking walls and barricades, and checking on civilians. Him and the other children were escorted to a large barracks, given a toy of their choosing to help them calm down and cope with the situation, and left to their own devices. Johnny had chosen a brand new GameBoy, which didn't need a traditional charger thanks to a solar panel built in to the case, and was told that he should walk around during the day with it so that it stays at full power. The next day an air raid siren was sounding and the children were all woken up and hurriedly brought to a large ship. The soldiers went through a roll call, making sure that everyone is there. They were brought onto the ship and went through the same medical screening Jeen had gone through. The ship took off and Johnny looked through the window, seeing an almost endless horde of zombies beating on the front gate. Just as they were breaking through the clouds the horde broke through the gate and began to overpower the soldiers who were left behind.

He began to cry as he realized that he would have met the same fate, had the roll call been prolonged. After a good ten minutes of silent crying he looked out the window again. He saw that they were now leaving the system, and noticed multiple other ships, that looked exactly like the one he was on, leaving the planet's atmosphere. He was just about to sit down when a blinding light began to emit from deep within the planet. Large explosions broke through the planet's crust as it fell apart, finally the whole planet erupted into one giant fireball and sent large pieces of rubble flying through space. They'd used a planet buster to quell the outbreak, but he knew this wasn't the end. For a ten year old kid, he was very smart. He could tell that some of the ships were beginning to descend slowly, crashing into the other colonies in the system. He didn't see them crash, but he could tell they weren't trying to land.

AN: DUN DUN DUNNN! Looks like the virus is spreading. More to come. R&R ^-^

Also...I've been writing this with the 28 days later theme playing on loop.


	3. The Galactic Apocalypse

AN: This chapter will take the form of a journal started by Johnny, as it seems like a good way to give some exposition.

Chapter 3: The Galactic Apocalypse

Day 1,095 of survival, three galactic years.

It's been three galactic years since the initial outbreak. I still haven't found dad... The infection spread to the inner colonies along with most of the surrounding empires. The remaining colonies aren't letting anyone in, and the empires who haven't been affected are fighting a losing battle. The infection is spreading alarmingly quick, especially to new planets. For some reason, destroying an infected planet doesn't slow down the virus one bit...in fact, it seems to speed it up. We still don't know what caused it, how to stop it, or if we even can stop it. I'm going on a scavenging run tonight. Wish me luck.

Day 1,096 of survival, three galactic years.

The scavenging run last night yielded plenty of weapons, ammo, food, and fuel. No medicine though. We lost two survivors in an ambush by the infected. They seem to be gaining intelligence, as they came out from the shadows and tackled two of us. The rest of us tried to help but we ended up making noise and attracting a whole horde. We had to leave those two behind, their screams are still ringing in my ears. We're packing up to head to a new planet...we heard over the ship's comms system that they'll be planet busting every planet with signs of infection...within one galactic hour. We've heard rumors that the Grox are still alive and manufactured this virus as revenge. Most of my group doesn't believe it...but it _is_ a possibility.

Day 1,277 of survival, three and a half galactic years.

We finally found a safe planet. Its inhabitants are pretty primitive, but they seem to be immune to the infection. We saw a few of them with bite marks...but they don't seem ill. We also haven't seen any infected but, the men of the tribe we're staying with are saying that they've seen people who look exactly like us walking around covered in blood. Either way, it's nice to have a break. They're calling us for lunch now.

Day 2,555 of survival, seven galactic years.

We were wrong about them being immune. We saw the tribe dragging the chieftain out of his hut...he was trying to bite the people who had captured him...they ended up following our advice and decapitated him. It seems their white blood cells are a lot stronger than those of most species in the galaxy, we may be able to make some sort of medicine to combat the infection. Even if it only delays the inevitable, this species seems to be able to slow down the effects of the virus for years. We're holding a negotiation for blood samples right now. I have to go.

Day 2,579 of survival, seven galactic years.

I haven't written in a bit...we went into cryo sleep when we left the planet. But, the negotation went south. A large horde of those running ones swarmed the village. The tribe put their lives before ours and held them off. The last wish their new leader had was for us to "stop the curse and save the rest of the realm". At least they believe in us. But, this curse they were talking about...I need to do some research. This is the only lead I have.

Day 2,614 of survival, seven galactic years.

I finally found a document related to the curse. It quotes a legend told by the tribe we were staying with. It goes as follows:

 _"A long time ago...deep in the depths of this planet. There was an ancient race of mages. They were powerful, even the strongest warrior couldn't fight one and live. They would go to the surface and use their powers to terrorise the surface dwelling tribes, telling them_ "If you don't have tribute by next year, you will all pay" _. So, the tribes all combined their money until they had enough to pay the mages. When the mages returned one year later they collected the money and destroyed the tribal city of_ Aurwat _. This angered the tribes, and they held a conference to find a way to stop the mages._

 _All the chieftains met at the remains of_ Aurwat _and discussed different ways to resist. Eventually they agreed to create a portal to the_ Underworld _and kill the mages. They spent one hundred days gathering the ingredients for the spell. When they had gathered them all, they chanted the magic words and descended with an army of all the tribal warriors to the_ Underworld _. It was there that they fought the mages and their undead army. When all but the chieftains and mages were dead, they had a final duel. The loser would be bannished from this world, never to return. The chieftains all discussed a strategy that night, and concluded that they should cheat. On the day of the duel, the chieftains and mages met in an empty field. The mages, unaware of the trap set by the chieftains the night before, were cocky._

 _When the duel started the chieftains lured the mages into a sacred circle, slitting their wrists and letting their blood pour into the small canals lining the circle. They began to cast a spell, one that can not be repeated at risk of releasing the mages, and sent the mages to the netherrealm. The leader's last words were_ "You will pay for your treachery! Three thousand years from now, every living being in your realm will be afflicted by a deadly plague, this plague will turn brothers against eachother, and turn the best of friends into the worst of enemies!" _. It is said that this curse can only be stopped by finding the Great Goddess Azur-"_

And it cuts off there...I will look into restoring the document.

AN: So, how'd you like it? I think this story is coming along nicely. Anyway, R&R! It helps me improve my writing skills.


End file.
